Staniel Cay and Thunderball Grotto

Staniel Cay is one of the most frequented Exumas by tourists. This place is home to the Thunderball Grotto and Staniel Cay Yacht Club, along with swimming pigs and iguanas nearby. Often people take a day trip on a boat with other tourists to get here and check off swimming with the pigs, feeding the iguanas, and swimming with sharks. Staniel Cay has an airport, so that's another way to get to this cay. Others, who own or charter a boat, stay overnight or longer to find their own adventures both on and off the cay.

Last summer, after being in the Bahamas for just under 2 weeks, we started making a list of things we wanted to see and do this summer. I put the list on a Google doc and organized it by island grouping. There was a ton on my list for the Exumas since we thought we'd be there for most of our summer (no thanks to our engine trouble...). When we found out my sister and her family would be joining us in the Exumas, I sent her my long list and asked which things she wanted to do with us. The number one thing she wanted to do was snorkel Thunderball Grotto, which is about 90 miles from George Town. That's quite the distance in a trawler, but we had following seas, so that was in our favor over our 2-day jaunt (62 miles the first day and 30ish the next). We figured heading as far north as we wanted to go, first, would give us more time to make smaller day trips and stops along our way back south. Ben's quote of the trip for my sister and her family was, "Only 6 more miles," because it seemed like no matter how much time had gone by that's how much longer he'd announce we had left to travel. The first day of travel seemed to drag on and on. In reality, the sites he wanted to stop at proved not capable for our boat due to the water conditions, so he had to keep picking new endpoints, resulting in a much longer trip than we all anticipated. 

In the early afternoon of our second travel day, we arrived at Staniel Cay. It had been since Nassau the week before that we had seen fuel that was of good quality, so we took advantage of this and filled up a quarter tank for $6.78/gallon. When we are at a fuel dock, the engines and generator are turned off, so we don't have air conditioning or much of a breeze and it gets hot pretty quickly. The kids were all looking off the bow at the fish swimming around the marina and spotted some 6-inch-long Sergeant Majors (which were huge compared to the ones we had been seeing while swimming) and a nurse shark! They were thrilled.

Looking down off the starboard side of the boat, between the dock and the Cartermaran, this school of Sargeant Majors was swimming around and full of entertainment for us.

Thunderball Grotto was just offshore of Staniel Cay, so we pushed off the fuel dock and anchored about 100 yards away from the grotto entrance. Being early afternoon and knowing we'd be close to local eats, we hadn't eaten while underway, so we took the tender back to Staniel Cay Yacht Club's dinghy dock and went ashore. The water was so inviting that a few members of our family went for a quick dip, both intentionally and unintentionally. 

From the shore, looking out at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club docks and Thunderball Grotto, in the distance.

Google listed a restaurant within walking distance of the marina, so we started walking toward it. One of the yacht club workers was hopping back into her golf cart and asked us where we were headed. We told her and she told us it wasn't open until 4 and gave us a few other options and offered to drive us. We took her up on her offer and she brought us to Bottom Line Restaurant, which was in their first 3 weeks of being open. The 9 of us selected our meals- 3 of us had cheeseburgers, 3 had Mahi, 3 had chicken wings, and all 9 of us ordered some Goombay Punch. Everything was delicious and we all finished everything on our plates! That doesn't happen very often, especially with the 5 kids.

This little restaurant had a warm and colorful greeting, right off the bat!

They even have a dinghy dock for quick access from the boat!

The view out the window by our table was picture-perfect!

The chicken wings that everyone wished they ordered because they were so delicious.

A cheeseburger with all the fixins, just how Bear likes it.

Mahi

There wasn't anyone around with a golf cart when we left the restaurant, so we walked back to the marina, with a stop at the grocery store where we bought 10 bottles of Goombay Punch for the boat.

Part of my favorite part of going ashore is taking in all of the beautiful colors of flowers, houses, and water from land. Why isn't it acceptable for our houses back home to be painted so beautifully? I'm always in awe of the simplicity of island life.

beautiful island colors

more colors

Back at the dinghy dock, we loaded up and ventured around the water, scouting out the grotto and its surroundings, all while trying not to mention too many things that would make Bear not want to join us in the water. We pulled around toward the entrance of the grotto when a group of snorkelers was headed inside as the tide was on its way out, which was perfect because that was the part I was nervous about. Their heads and snorkels were easy to spot as they made their way under the cave wall before disappearing inside. Watching this got everyone excited, some even thinking about going right then.

"Welcome to Thunderball Grotto. No fishing. Take only photos," is written on the sign.

 If you look in the shadows between the rock groupings, you can see a person with a snorkel getting ready to enter the grotto.

Between my sister and I, we did all the research we could. Over and over again, we read that the best time to go was slack tide, especially because we were bringing our kids, ages 16, 11, 11, 8, and 5. I was mostly worried about our 5-year-old, Roo, swimming with a strong current and needing to hold her breath for a bit to duck underwater to get under the wall and into the grotto. 

Low tide for the next day was at 8:24 am. My sister and I were wondering if that would be early enough to avoid all of the tourist boats from nearby islands. Our research said over and over again slack tide, which we knew was different than low tide, so we did some quick research on slack tide and found out the slack part is referring to the current, not the tide. Slack is the time between tide changes and lasts about 45 minutes and as the tide starts to go in or out, the current picks up. Slack current happens 1 hour before and 1 hour after both high and low tide, and we knew needed to go during the low tide window. Since we were going to be in the covered grotto, our plan was to skip the sunscreen and wear swim shirts, then apply sunscreen after we were done and back at the boat so we could load up on the tender around 7 am. Both my sister and I are known for being less punctual than we plan, so we figured making the plan to leave at 7 would give us a little buffer and still be at the grotto an hour before low tide. 

For the remainder of the evening, we sat on the foredeck and made a plan for the next few days, trying to pack in as much Exuma fun as possible. Unfortunately, it was trash-burning day and the gusts kept blowing our way. It was difficult to sit outside for very long as we continued to smell all of the smoke.

The smoke column from trash day, clearly visible from our anchorage, was stinking up our outdoor experience.

It wasn't too long after 7 the next morning when all 9 of us were ready. Setting out everyone's bathing suits, snorkel, and life vest the night before was super helpful in getting us out as close to 7 as we did. Boarding the tender, we saw that no boats were anchored at the entrance and we were hopeful that we'd have the place to ourselves for a little bit.

Ben was the first one all geared up and ready, so we sent him out to scope the entrance and let us know if we came at a decent time. He got to the entry and yelled back to us, "Hurry up! It's even better than in the pictures!" He swam back and one by one we all jumped out of the tender and swam in a line to the grotto entrance. Bear was not enjoying herself and everyone else was going in, so I had to turn her around and give her a shove to keep her going. There were gasps and remarks from everyone as they got in and looked around- at the fish swimming under and around us, at the grotto walls, and at the openings over us. Bear's gasps were from hyperventilating, not in awe.

Inside, there were hundreds of fish just swimming around with us. The coral and fish were abundant, in part because Thunderball Grotto is inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park boundary, so there is no fishing or taking anything allowed. The first morning light was starting to peek through the water before streaming through the grotto openings in the ceiling as time passed.

Everyone swam to all of the edges of the grotto, looking out underneath where the rock ended and it looked like the water had no upper boundary. It was like we were swimming in a mushroom stem and the grotto ceiling was the canopy, just barely touching the water.

Under one of the canopies, Ben, who had Roo snorkeling by laying on his back while he swam, announced to everyone that he saw a shark. I was so upset at him because Bear, who I was swimming with and trying to settle down, looked at me and started freaking out when she heard his announcement, which was more like a yell. She wasn't the only one to freak out, so he clarified that it was under the grotto wall and beyond, so it wasn't close or coming our way, thankfully.

Bear finally managed to calm down and start to enjoy herself. She said she started to calm down when she realized she paddled with her hands and it kept the fish from swimming too close to her.

Snorkel Smiles from inside the grotto!

Spelunking the grotto lasted for about 45 minutes and we had the place all to ourselves. We explored every edge, nook, and cranny. Ben and my sister saw a small crevice near the entrance that they wanted to explore on our way out. A few of the big kids swam back to the tender, with my brother-in-law, while the 2 little kids took this crevice with me, my sister, and Ben. We saw a giant lobster (my sister swore it was the size of a small dog, but that was debatable) tucked into some rocks and had to climb up and over a rock fragment to get all the way through. Our two rock-climbing kids enjoyed themselves in this part, as the walls inside the grotto weren't conducive to climbing. This path took us out and around the island as the sun was coming up, illuminating the water, and waking up more of the sea life. We saw another giant lobster in the coral outside. Moose swam back to me and pointed out while shrieking inside his snorkel. 

Since my brother-in-law didn't see the crevice passageway, my sister wanted to take him through it. I wasn't going to go with them, but decided to join them and Moose. Once we were out and circling back to the tender, two boats were starting to anchor and head into the grotto. They asked us how the current was and we told them it was a perfect time to go in, but was starting to pick up, so be careful.

Staniel Cay was a great place to stop. I understand why so many people frequent this cay and know we will be back someday!